


The Stories of Our Lives

by TsiaBonasera



Category: Criminal Minds (US TV)
Genre: A little bit of everything, Multi, Some Fluff, Some angst, repost from my ffnet
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-06-27
Updated: 2018-06-27
Packaged: 2019-05-29 13:21:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 17,456
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15074045
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TsiaBonasera/pseuds/TsiaBonasera
Summary: This is going to be a series of one-shots based off of my list of Criminal Minds headcanons, If you have a headcanon you would like to see just PM me and I'll work it in. Also it does not have to be Hotch/Prentiss related, I have them as the characters because the majority of my headcanons involve them. Disclaimer: I don't own Criminal Minds or any of its characters.Repost from my FFnet.





	1. Secrets Don't Make Friends

**Author's Note:**

> If you have a headcanon you'd like me to include, hit me up I'll try to figure something out. It can include any of the new characters as well, I still watch the show, just haven't updated this fic in ages.

Emily sat on her couch watching some meaningless night time talk show as she tried her hardest not to move her body and disturb her three broken ribs when she heard a knock on her door. She was waiting for him to show up…he always does after she get's hurt, so she picked up her phone and texted:  _I know it_ _'_ _s you, I_ _'_ _m not getting up, the door_ _'_ _s unlocked just come in._

Just as she was about to unwillingly stand up and open the door she saw it swing open followed by all the members of her team walk in, led my none other than Aaron Hotchner.

"Okay Hotch, I assumed you would come by but did you really have to bring the rest of the team too?" Emily said, not moving from her laying down position on her couch.

"He didn't bring us we all kind of ran into each other downstairs…" Reid answered as they all stepped further into the room.

"Really guys, I'm fine. But I am not getting up so make yourselves comfortable." Emily said as she watched them all hesitantly take a seat somewhere in her living room.

"I said make yourselves comfortable not awkwardly sit down with your coats still on, wow guys" Emily said a laugh before wincing at the pain.

"If I'm making myself at home then where's the beer?" Morgan asked with a smile, trying to lighten the mood.

"In the fridge, bottom shelf. There's a bunch of different kinds grab whatever you want. Rossi the hard liquor is in the cabinet next to the fridge and JJ you know very well where the wine is." Emily said as she watched Morgan get up and grab a beer.

"Come on guys lighten up…It's just a few broken ribs…nothing too serious." Emily said sincerely as looked at the solemn faces of her friends.

"Em you fell off a roof." JJ said simply as she too got up and grabbed a glass of wine.

"I did not fall I was pushed. There's a difference." Emily pointed out.

"Did you take your pain meds?" Hotch finally spoke up, knowing full well that she hadn't.

"Maybe…" Emily trailed off, looking away from him.

"You're taking them." Garcia said firmly as she got up and pranced into the kitchen looking for the medication bottle.

"How about I make you guys a deal…I will take my meds if you all relax and have a drink." Emily propositioned looking between everyone in the room.

"Only if I can find your meds." Garcia said, frustrated after not being able to locate the medication.

Without saying a word, Hotch got up and went up the stairs before returning a moment later with the pill bottle in his hand.

"I need to stop putting it in the same spot every time. Damn." Emily playfully cursed as Hotch walked into the kitchen and poured her a glass of water before walking back over and handing her the class then getting two pills out of the container and handing those to her as well. She quickly took her pills and looked at her team mates expectantly.

"So, what are you guys doing here?" Emily asked.

"We're here to make sure you're okay." Reid said like it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"I'd be a lot better if you guys would relax, jeez, you're acting like I got stabbed in the stomach…" Emily joked.

"NOT FUNNY!" Garcia yelled from the kitchen as she poured herself a glass of wine as well.

"So are you guys just gonna sit there and watch me watch this shitty TV show or are you going to entertain your injured friend?" Emily asked trying to sit up but failing. Causing Hotch to get up and help her sit up, then he sat down next to her on the couch.

"What did you have in mind?" JJ asked, in between sips of wine.

"Let's play a game or something." Emily suggested, adjusting her blanket to over her legs.

"You don't exactly have many games Em, you have like one deck of cards and a binder full of drinking games, which you can't play since your on pain meds." JJ pointed out with a laugh.

"Well excuse me for not being prepared, I wasn't expecting to host a party tonight."

"We could play charades or something." Garcia suggested, handing Reid a beer she had grabbed from the fridge before sitting down with her glass of wine.

"That requires a lot of movement…"Emily said distastefully.

"Yeah, maybe a different idea." Hotch suggested.

"No, Rossi and Hotch need to get drinks before I agree to anything." Emily said defiantly staring at Hotch.

"You got whiskey?" Rossi asked, standing up and walking into the kitchen.

"You bet your ass I do, and grab Hotch a bud light while you're in there." Emily said, watching as Hotch just looked at her and realized he wasn't going to win this silent fight before giving up.

Rossi came back into the living room, handed Hotch his beer and sat back down himself.

"You guys have an hour to entertain me before I get too tired since you made me take those pills." Emily stated blankly.

"Well, what do you want to do?" Garcia asked cheerily.

"What I really want to do is sleep, but I'm afraid if I do that now, I'll wake up in the morning to you guys still here." Emily huffed.

"I make no promises my friend." Garcia replied.

"Great…" Emily said, rubbing the bridge of her nose.

"Now what are we gonna do? Just stare at Prentiss?" Morgan asked sarcastically, taking a sip of beer.

"No you are not." Emily said giving Morgan her best glare.

"How about a movie then? You don't have to do anything, just sit there and relax and if you fall asleep no one will notice." JJ suggested, getting up and going over to Emily's entertainment center to browse her selection of movies.

"Fine…you guy's can pick one, I don't care what we watch." Emily muttered taking a sip of water from her cup.

"Okay boy's do you want a rom com or a spy thriller?" JJ asked watching the faces of her team.

"Don't put in a spy thriller Emily will make sarcastic comments throughout the whole thing, trust me." Morgan said annoyed.

"Only because they are highly inaccurate." Emily defended.

"How about a comedy then?" JJ suggested.

"No, I can't laugh without pain and a coughing fit…so please, no comedies." Emily asked already feeling the effect of her medication.

"Okay, no spy thrillers, no comedies, that leaves action or a cheesy rom com that won't make you laugh." JJ pointed out.

"Go with a romantic comedy, there'd be too much action and she'd never fall asleep or relax." Hotch said, finally contributing to the conversation.

"Everyone okay with that?" JJ asked, getting various nods of approval from the rest of the team.

"Just don't put in The Proposal, that one will actually make me laugh." Emily warned as she tried to get comfortable on the couch.

"Okay, I'll just pick a random one…" JJ said, grabbing a dvd off the shelf and throwing it in the player.

"Does anyone need more alcohol before this movie starts?" Garcia asked as she got up to fill her and JJ's wine glasses back up.

Morgan and Reid both took another beer as did Rossi but Hotch declined saying someone needed to be the designated driver. Garcia brought them the beers before turning the lights completely off and closing the curtains which left the room bathed in darkness so that you could barely see a foot in front of you.

As the movie started and everyone was settling in Hotch could still feel Emily shifting next to him trying to find a more comfortable position to sit in.

"Just relax" He leaned in and whispered soothingly as she still shifted around.

"That's very hard when your secret boyfriend who is also your boss is sitting next to you in a room full of your friends and coworkers." Emily snapped quietly, doing her best to glare at him in the darkness.

"I didn't bring them, I was just gonna come over here make your take your pills and carry you up to bed so you'd actually sleep." Hotch told her.

"Well now I'm stuck watching a movie and I can't even lay down for it. Having broken ribs suck." Emily pouted, not paying any attention to the movie.

"Here." Hotch said shifting his body so he was leaning against the edge of the couch and facing the Tv. He put one leg up on the couch behind Emily and grabbed her hips, gently pulling her back towards him into a slightly laying down position, taking the pressure off of her ribs.

"Someone's gonna see." Emily said with a yawn.

"Just go to sleep, i'll wake you up before the movie's done and no one will see…besides it's too dark in here for anyone to see anything anyways.

It only took moments for Emily to fall asleep wrapped in the warm embrace and it took even less time for Hotch to unwilling fall asleep as well.

Two hours past and neither of them woke up. The movie had ended and Garcia had gotten up turn the lights back on, and right as she did she saw the two and broke out into a grin.

"What time is it?" Reid asked tiredly, not paying attention to the sleeping lovebirds next to him.

"Three a.m." JJ responded groggily until she looked over to the couch and saw them causing her to smile as well…

"Well i'll be damned…" Morgan said as he finally looked over to see them, causing Rossi to look as well.

"It's about damn time is more like it." Rossi said getting up.

JJ got up and moved to the side of the couch where she knew the blankets were and placed one on top of them gently.

"I don't know about you guys but i'm not driving home tonight. Garcia and I can take Em's room Rossi, Morgan and Reid you guys can fight for who gets the other two guest rooms and who's sleeping on the floor." JJ said, starting her ascent up the stairs towards Emily's room, before getting nearly trampled by Morgan and Reid racing up the stairs to one of the other rooms.

"You're not worried you won't get a bed?" JJ asked Rossi with a laugh as Garcia came up the stairs behind her.

"No, I'll just force one of them out. Shouldn't be too hard." Rossi said, finally getting up and following them up the stairs.

—

"Ugh, what time is it?" Emily asked with a yawn as she started to wake up once Hotch began to stir as usual.

Hotch glanced around the room looking for a clock but all he saw was Rossi in the kitchen cooking and the rest of the team eating something at the dining room table.

"Shit." Emily mumbled, not even bothering to try and sit up.

"It isn't what it looks like." Hotch lied, trying to divert the attention.

"Yeah well, you two suck at hiding it so it wasn't really a surprise." JJ said in-between mouth fulls of pancake.

"No. There is no way you could've known. We were so careful." Emily said, feeling a headache coming on already.

"Next time try not making out in the parking garage." Rossi suggested.

"And the kitchen on the jet." Morgan added.

"And your office." JJ finished the chain.

"Fuck…" Emily muttered under her breath. "Seriously? Why didn't you tell us?" Emily asked, annoyed.

"It was more fun to make you squirm." Rossi said with a smile before walking over and handing them two plates full of food. "Now eat up. We have big plans for you two this weekend."


	2. Pancakes and Memories

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This one is set probably around season 5…since Emily and Hotch were pretty close towards the end of the season.

"Daddy, daddy wake up!" Jack shouted as he jumped up onto his fathers bed.

"Jack, what time is it?" Hotch asked groggily, pulling himself out of his sleep to look at the clock.

"It's 8:30 daddy! You have to get up!" Jack said adamantly, tugging at his fathers arm to pull him into a sitting position.

"Hold on buddy, let me wake up first." Hotch said with a chuckle as he ran his hand over his face.

"Wake up faster daddy!" Jack shouted.

"What's the rush? What are you so eager to do?" Hotch asked with a laugh, pulling his son into a tight hug.

"I'm hungry!" Jack sighed dramatically.

"Oh, so you just want me for food." Hotch said, tickling Jacks sides.

"No daddy…stop" Jack said in-between fits of laughter.

"Fine. What do you want for breakfast? Cereal?" Hotch asked, getting up from the bed and seining Jack onto his back.

"No." Jack answered.

"How about pancakes?" Hotch asked walking into the kitchen of the apartment.

"YEAH!" Jack exclaimed happily.

"Pancakes it is. Now go get dressed while I make breakfast, okay buddy." Hotch told Jack who then proceeded to run into his bedroom.

Hotch busied himself with finding the ingredients to make the pancakes. He couldn't believe Jack was actually up this early, he usually slept in until at least 9:30 on the weekends. As Hotch began mixing all the ingredients together and heating up the skillet he thought about possible activities they could do for the day. They could go to the zoo, the park, stay home and watch movies. Honestly anything that involved spending time with his son would be fine with him. Just as he was about to grab out the ladle to scoop out the batter Jack came running into the kitchen wearing a pajama top and a pair of jeans.

"Jack…you know that's a pajama top right?" Hotch asked him as he climbed up onto the stool at the counter.

"I know, but it's comfy." Jack answered him with a smile.

"That's fine for now, but if we go somewhere you're gonna have to put a different shirt on, got it?" Hotch told him while he scooped some batter onto the skillet.

"Got it."

"Okay, why don't you grab the syrup out of the fridge and i'll get the plates okay?" Hotch said, watching as his son jumped down from the stool and pattered over to the fridge.

Hotch put two plates and forks down at the stools at the counter and had Jack put the syrup between them as he flipped the pancakes.

"How much longer daddy? I'm hungry." Jack pouted, back at his seat on the stool.

"I know buddy, almost done, just another minute." Hotch answered grabbing out some glasses and pouring them some juice.

He placed the cups in front of the plates and went over to the skillet and took the four pancakes off and put two on each plate before warning Jack that they were still hot.

Jack blew on his pancakes a few times before using his fork and cutting a generous portion off of one, dipping it into the syrup and plopping it into his mouth.

"So, how are your pancakes?" Hotch asked, taking another bite of his own.

"Hm…not good." Jack answered with a pout, putting his fork down on his plate and crossing his arms.

"What do you mean?" Hotch asked surprised.

"They don't taste right." Jack declared.

"They taste like pancakes, what are they supposed to taste like?" Hotch asked.

"Yummy." Jack answered.

"And what does a yummy pancake tast like?" Hotch asked, getting slightly annoyed.

"Like the kind Emmie makes." Jack replied.

"When did Emily make you pancakes?" Hotch asked, confused.

"Last week, when she babysitted me. She made me pancakes for dinner." Jack told him.

"So what was different about hers?" Hotch wondered.

"I don't know."

"You gotta give me something here buddy." Hotch said, looking at his son.

"They tasted yummier! Ask Emmie!" Jack said defiantly.

"I'm not going to call her and ask her how to make pancakes." Hotch responded.

"I don't want to eat these. They don't taste like Emmies." Jack said, slipping off the stool and going to sit down on the couch.

"Come on buddy just come back and eat your pancakes, i'll ask her or next time okay?" Hotch tried to bargain.

"No. I want Emmie's pancakes." Jack declared.

"No, come on…just eat these one's. They taste fine." Hotch tried again.

"No. I'm not eating anything until I get Emmie's pancakes." Jack said loudly.

"Fine. Hold on." Hotch said, getting up from the counter and going back in his bedroom to find his phone. He quickly hit speed dial 4 to call Emily and waited as it rung.

"Prentiss." Emily said over the noise of the coffee shop she was in.

"Hey, it's Hotch am I interrupting anything?" He asked, hoping he wasn't intruding.

"No, you're good. Just grabbing some coffee before I go shopping. Do we have new case? Usually JJ calls me about that." Emily wondered, grabbing her coffee from the barista and sitting down at a table.

"No, there's no case. But I'm interrupting never mind." Hotch replied, ready to hang up.

"No It's okay, is something wrong?" Emily asked, starting to get worried. Hotch never talked to her like this on the phone before. It was always case related or making plans, he never seemed nervous before.

"Are you sure?" Hotch asked.

"Yeah, positive. What's up?" Emily asked, taking a sip of her coffee.

"Okay, well…I tried making Jack pancakes for breakfast but he doesn't like the one's I made him because he said the one's you made him were better and he won't eat anything unless I make the pancakes like you did." Hotch explained, embarrassed at what had just happend.

"Pancakes? When did I make him- Oh yeah, the other night, I made pancakes for dinner…Okay so how did you make them?" Emily asked hopping she could help.

"I made them like normal pancakes, just like the pancakes i've always made him…this is the first time he's not wanted to eat them…What kind of pancakes did you make?" Hotch asked.

"I just made them from scratch since I didn't have a box mix in the house…did you use a box mix? Maybe that's it?" Emily asked.

"No, I made them from scratch, I don't like the taste of the box mixes." Hotch answered.

"Then I have to idea…" Emily replied.

"Okay, thanks anyways, I'll just wait him out until he's hungry enough to eat again." Hotch told her.

"You're going to starve out your son?" Emily asked with a laugh.

"He's refusing to eat, what else am I supposed to do?" Hotch asked, smiling at the sound of Emily's laugh on the other end.

"Well I'm about five minutes from your place, why don't I just come over and make him some pancakes?" Emily suggested hopefully.

"No, It's fine. You don't have to do that." Hotch said, not wanting to burden her.

"I'll be over in a few minutes, I don't want Jack to starve since you can't make pancakes." Emily said with a laugh before continuing "And don't say no because I'm coming over whether you like it or not."

"Fine…and Emily?"

"Yeah?"

"Thank you."

"My pleasure." Emily said before hanging up the phone with a smile.

* * *

It only took ten minutes for Emily to get to his apartment and Hotch was beginning to wonder if she was going to bail out on him. But his suspicions were trumped when she showed up at his door with two coffees in her hands, one for him and one for her.

"I figured you could use the caffeine this morning." She said, handing him the cup.

"Thank you." Hotch replied, letting her into the apartment.

"EMMIE!" Jack shouted as he came barreling into her legs and wrapping his arms around in a tight embrace.

"Hey buddy!" Emily said, kneeling down a little when he let go so she was at eye level. "You're daddy tells me you won't eat his yummy pancakes."

"They're not yummy. Well not as yummy as yours." Jack told her.

"I'm sure that's not true…but just in case, what do you say we go make some more?" Emily asked him with a big smile.

"Yeah!" Jack said, grabbing her hand and tugging her into the kitchen.

"Okay Hotch, get over here and I'll show you how it's done." Emily said with a smirk, causing Hotch to smile and roll his eyes at her.

They set to work, Emily telling Hotch the ingredients she needed and Hotch getting them for her. It only took about 5 minutes to get everything mixed up and ready and right as Hotch was about to put the batter on the skillet Emily stopped him.

"Not so fast Agent Hotchner, there is one more ingredient you are forgetting about." Emily said, smiling at Jack who was sitting across from her at his stool.

"What am I missing? This is the exact same recipe I use." Hotch said, confused.

"Chocolate chips." Emily said, looking over to him and giving him a smile.

"Chocolate chips? Seriously? That's what this whole thing was about. He wanted chocolate chips in his pancakes?" Hotch asked annoyed.

"I guess…if you say you use the same recipe than they should be fine. Except I put chocolate chips in mine." Emily told him, laughing at the silliness of the whole situation.

"Really Jack? You could've just told me you wanted chocolate chips." Hotch said, looking at his son.

"I didn't know." Jack shrugged innocently.

"It's fine Hotch, now get the chocolate chips out so you can make us some pancakes." Emily said, circling the counter and going to sit down next to Jack.

"You came all the way here just to find out all we needed to do was to put chocolate chips in the batter, I feel bad. We interrupted your plans." Hotch said as he went into the cupboard and added chocolate chips to the batter.

"Yeah well my plans were boring anyway, I was just gonna go shopping since I had nothing better to do." Emily told him.

"Still." Hotch said, scooping four circles of batter onto the skillet.

"Emmie you should stay here and play with me after breakfast!" Jack said looking hopefully up at Emily.

"No Jack, we already interrupted her once, we need to let her go after breakfast." Hotch told him.

"Actually Hotch if you don't mind I'd love to stay and play, like I said, my plans were boring. And how can you say no to this face." Emily said pinching at Jacks cheeks causing him to giggle profusely.

"Please daddy! Can Emmie stay? Pretty please!" Jack practically begged.

"You sure you want to?" Hotch looked to Emily and asked.

"Yeah, it'll be fun." Emily said with a smile "But first you have to feed us, I'm starving." Emily finished, causing Hotch to turn his attention back to the pancakes.

"Yeah daddy, hurry up, I'm hungry!" Jack said, joining in with Emily.

"Okay you two, hold your horses, they're almost done." Hotch replied with a laugh.

"Emmie I like it when you come over, Daddy smiles a lot!" Jack said happily as he awaited his pancakes, causing both Hotch and Emily to blush.

"I like it when your daddy smiles too." Emily admitted softly, causing Jack's face to break into a grin.

"Okay, breakfast is served." Hotch said, placing two pancakes on each of their plates and starting four more on the skillet.

Jack took one bite and smiled happily before humming slightly and shoving his face again causing Emily to laugh.

The three ate their breakfast, talking and laughing casually and when Jack was done he excitedly pushed Emily into the living room with hopes of building a fort. Which they did, even Hotch joined them when he was done cleaning up the dishes. None of them are sure who decided to start watching movies from the fort but they ended up staying in it all day, watching one after another. It wasn't until near the end of The Lion King that Hotch looked over to see Jack asleep, laying onto of Emily's lap who was also asleep. He grabbed a blanket from outside the fort and covered them up, reveling at seeing his friend and son so peaceful for the first time in a very long time.


	3. Staking Claim

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Okay I'm putting this in season 7, so Jack would be around 6 or 7 at the time, It's late and I don't feel like doing the specific math…also this was a wonderful submission from Aleja21! Um oh yeah, Beth does not exist for the sake of this story."My idea was that Emily comes to one of Jacks soccer games, where Hotch is coaching. One of the soccer mom's has a thing for Hotch and Emily overhears her comments but then stakes her claim on Hotch after the game."

"Okay, why doesn't every body head home early for the night, it's been a long day…get some rest, you don't have to be here until 9 tomorrow." Hotch said, standing up from his seat in the round table room.

"You don't have to tell me twice" Morgan said as he stood up, followed by the rest of the team following suit and walking out of the room.

"Dad!" Jack Hotchner said as he came barreling into the bullpen in his soccer uniform.

"Hey buddy, what're you doing here?" Hotch asked, immediately confused since Jack was supposed to be with his aunt for another hour or two.

"Aunt Jessica said you needed a hug." Jack said as he swung his arms around his father's neck and latched him into a tight embrace as Hotch finally saw Jessica walking into the bullpen.

"What are you guys doing here?" Hotch asked Jessica as she ascended the stairs up towards Hotch's office, which he was standing in front of as the rest of the team was gathering their things at their desks.

"I thought it would be easier to drop him off here since the soccer field is the other direction, this way you don't have to go all the way home and then back over the the soccer field after your very long day." Jessica explained, handing Hotch Jacks backpack.

"Oh, thanks." Hotch said as Jack dropped from his hug and ran down the steps.

"Emmie!" He shouted as he nearly tackled an unsuspecting Emily to the ground with a hug.

"Whoa, hi Jack." Emily said with a smile, the first smile Hotch had seen all week. It had been a very long case that took place in Virginia, so they were able to sleep in their own beds, with the UNSUB kidnapping and torturing young women for days before he'd finally kill them. They hadn't gotten any breaks in the case until the guy was pulled over and shot a cop, it was hours after that that they had finally caught him.

"I had to come give dad a hug because Aunt Jessica said you guys had a catch a REALLY bad guy this week. So I think you should have a hug too." Jack said jumping up so he could give Emily a big hug, making Hotch smile.

"Aw, thanks buddy. But what about everyone else? Don't they get hugs?" Emily said with a laugh.

"I gave them a lot of hugs when you went away." Jack said quietly, causing everyone else to go quiet as well. "I haven't got to hug you that much, and you give the bestest hugs!" Jack said, leaning his head down on Emily's shoulder.

Emily looked over to Hotch, trying not to cry as she squeezed the boy tighter and said "You're hugs aren't so bad either kiddo."

They stayed like that for another minute, everyone just watching them as Jack rested comfortably on Emily's shoulder as she rubbed his back lightly.

"I have a soccer game tonight, Dad's the coach, you should come watch, he said I'm really good!" Jack said excitedly, pulling away from her shoulder to look at her face.

"No Jack, Emily's tired and she wants to go home, maybe another time." Hotch said, coming up to the two of them.

"I'd love to come watch you." Emily said, purposefully ignoring Hotch.

"You really don't have to do that." Hotch said, taking a step closer.

"What, are you afraid I'm going to laugh at your coaching abilities?" Emily said with a smile, trying to lighten the mood.

"My coaching abilities are just fine thank you very much." Hotch said with a small smile.

"Then it's settled, I'm coming to watch the game." Emily said, putting jack down.

"The game's not until 7 and it's only 5…" Hotch trailed off, not sure of how to continue.

"Well Jack, did you have dinner yet?" Emily asked, looking down at Jack, who just shook his head to answer.

"Well why don't we go get some dinner? Your dad and I haven't eaten anything all day and I for one am starving." Emily said looking over to Hotch.

"Yeah! Can we dad? Can we?" Jack asked, turning to his father.

"I don't see why not…where do you wanna go?" Hotch asked him.

"Let's go get hamburgers!" Jack said excitedly grabbing Emily's hand and starting to pull her away from her desk.

"How about the diner over by the soccer field? Does that sound good?" Hotch asked as Emily grabbed her purse from her desk and let Jack pull her.

"Yeah!" He shouted grabbing his fathers hand as well and dragging them both.

"Night guys!" Emily shouted to the rest of her dumbfounded team as the boy lead them both out of the BAU.

"Did you drive in this morning?" Hotch asked as they got into the elevator and jack pressed the parking level button.

"No, Morgan picked me up after the he kidnapped Renee Travis this morning." Emily said, trying to think back to this morning.

"Okay, you can just ride with us." Hotch said as they rode the elevator down. "Is your car seat in the SUV?" Hotch asked Jack.

"Yup, Aunt Jessica put it in right when we got here." Jack told him.

"Alright." Hotch said as the elevator doors opened and Jack led them out, still holding both of their hands.

They walked over to where Hotch's SUV was parked and Hotch buckled Jack as Emily got in the passenger seat but getting in a starting the car up himself.

"Okay, everyone ready?" Hotch asked, beginning to pull out of the parking structure.

"Yeah!" Jack replied excitedly.

"You sure you want to come? We can drop you off now if you don't." Hotch asked, worried she was being pressured into this by his son.

"Hotch, seriously, I want to come." Emily said looking over at him.

"Okay, just giving you an out." Hotch said quietly.

The short car ride was uneventful sans for Jack excitedly rambling on about his day at school and Emily attentively listening. They arrived at the diner and sat in a booth near the corner before a waitress came and took their orders. The ate slowly, conversing and laughing. Jack had insisted on sitting next to Emily, which he did. At around 6:30 Hotch asked for the check and insisted on paying for Emily as well, since Jack had invited her. They left the diner and made their way to the soccer field where only one family was there already.

"I have to get the coaching stuff out of the trunk, could you take Jack over to the field?" Hotch asked as they got out of the car.

"No problem." Emily said, ruffling Jacks hair and walking with Jack over to the soccer fields at the park.

Hotch grabbed a bag of soccer balls and other coaching materials out of the trunk and made his way to where Emily was now kicking a soccer ball around with Jack. She was smiling and laughing as she let Jack get the ball away from her in the most dramatic fashion. She did look a little strange, she was still wearing a suit pants, heels and a deep blue shirt, deciding to take off her blazer so she didn't look entirely out of place. Hotch on the other hand had changed while they were at the diner into a t-shirt and jeans. Hotch watched for a moment as Emily laughed and played with Jack and thought about how nice it was to have her back. He had missed her, really missed her. And as much as he tried to hide it everyone noticed. Even Jack. He felt terrible lying to the team about what was really going on but he knew if he told them he would be putting her in danger, and he couldn't do that. Jack had taken it pretty hard too, he absolutely adored Emily. Hotch had decided to tell him she had just gone away for a while since he was only 6 at the time anyways, but one night with the team someone said something about Emily and he asked when she was coming back. He played it off as saying he didn't have the heart to tell him. But he had to break the news that night. He had cried all night and demanded to go see the cemetery the next day. It took a month to get him to smile again.

But Hotch put that out of his mind as Emily walked over to him on the sideline with a huge smile on her face.

"Hey, you okay?" She asked, trying to catch her breath.

"Yeah, I'm fine." Hotch said quickly.

"You sure, you look a little out of it." Emily said, growing slightly worried.

"I'm fine. Did he wear you out?" Hotch asked, trying to change the subject.

"Yeah, a little. But lucky for me some of his teammates got here and took my place." Emily said, dropping the subject for the moment.

"I don't know if you want to sit by me or the other parents, it doesn't really matter, but I brought you a chair." Hotch said nervously.

"I'm gonna sit by you, I have to judge your coaching style after all." Emily said with a devious grin as she grabbed the chair off the ground and set it up next to Hotch's.

"So you're just going to sit there and silently judge me for the entirety of the game?" Hotch asked, slightly smiling himself.

"No one said anything about quietly." Emily smirked sitting down in the chair and crossing her legs.

"Okay, but i'll have you know that I am actually a very good coach." Hotch told her.

"And how does one actually coach a group of small children how to play soccer?" Emily asked teasingly.

"Well, I try and get them to kick the ball correctly and to someone kick it to one another and into the goal. In reality the best I can do is try and keep them from picking the grass during the game." Hotch admitted with a laugh.

"That sounds about right." Emily laughed.

"Are you good here by yourself? I have to gather the troops to do some warm ups before the other team gets here." Hotch asked.

"Yeah, I'm good, go ahead." Emily said, leaning back in the chair as Hotch walked into the center of the field where a group of kids had begun to gather.

Emily sat quietly in her chair, checking her phone periodically so she didn't look so awkward just sitting there. To be completely honest she was pretty tired and would have loved to go home and sleep but once Jack had asked her to come there was no way she was going to say no. There was also the added bonus of getting to spend time outside of work with Hotch. They used to spend more time together outside of work, especially after Foyet had initially attacked him. They enjoyed each others company and would often find themselves going for coffee on the weekends or watching a movie together after a long case. Nothing had developed although Emily though something might have if Haley hadn't died and if she hadn't have 'died' as well. A lot of things complicated their lives but Emily was happy that it seemed they were getting back into their comfortable rhythm. That's when she saw it. A woman with a young boy on the team walking up to Hotch. She touched his arm and made some kind of joke that Hotch didn't laugh at, being too focused on the team. Emily listened closer to try and hear what was going on.

"How come you're not wearing you suit." The woman said with a flirty tilt to her voice. "I always love seeing you in those suits."

"I changed, a suit isn't exactly coaching clothes." Hotch said, never looking up from his clipboard.

"Well at least this shirt really accents your muscles, do you work out?" She asked anything but innocently.

"I have to stay in shape for my job." Hotch replied dryly before directing the kids to start kicking into the net.

"Well I bet you just have women throwing themselves at you." She said with a laugh.

"Why don't you go get the snacks set up Lisa, we're going to start soon." Hotch said, blowing his whistle and rounding up the kids as the woman reluctantly walked over to another group of women.

Emily watched as the women all ogled at Hotch as he gave the kids a pep talk and ran through the rules of the game before they started. The other coach blew her whistle and they rounded all the kids up and got the parents off the field before Hotch dropped a ball in between the two starters and watched as they kicked the ball between them. Most of the game was uneventful, because really what could you expect from children that age playing soccer. Jack turned and waved at Emily a few times before turning his attention back towards the game. The only thing Emily learned though out the game was that the Lisa character had a thing for Hotch and that they didn't keep score for games with kids in this age group. But the former held her attention far more than the latter. She watched as the woman pointed out things to her friends and giggled whenever hotch would turn in a way that they could see his butt. It irritated her and she didn't know why…were those feelings she felt before the whole Doyle event coming back…were they more serious than they had been at first? But all of Emily's resolve broke when the final whistle blew and the woman ran up and gave Hotch a hug. Emily had had enough as she walked though the running children and towards Hotch who now had Jack clinging onto his leg and a woman standing a foot in front of him trying to get a date.

"Hey Jack! That was a good game, you did great!" Emily said loudly as she walked up to them.

"Hey, Jack, why don't you go get a juice box from the snack table." Hotch suggested, sensing what was about to happen.

He had been feeling different around Emily ever since she came back. At first he thought it was just the relief that he didn't have to lie to his team anymore, or the happiness that she was back and okay, but lately he started to realize it was something more. His feelings were starting to interfere, that's why he didn't want Emily to come to the game tonight because he knew seeing her with Jack he wouldn't be able to fight it anymore.

"I stand corrected, you are a good coach." Emily said with a smile before turning her head to look at the woman.

"Yes, was there ever any doubt about that?" The woman said defiantly.

"Emily why don't we head home it's been a long week." Hotch said, trying to avoid the situation all together.

"Oh, Aaron why don't you introduce us, who is this?" The woman asked, fishing for answers.

"This is Emily Prentiss." Hotch said matter-of-factly.

"And how do you two know each other?" She asked further.

"We work together, but it really has been a long week and I'm sure Emily would like to sleep just as much as I would." Hotch said, putting his hand on the small of Emily's back to try and guide her away from the situation.

"Nonsense, it's only 8:30, you can't go to bed yet, why don't you drop Emily off at home so she can sleep and then come meet me for a drink at O'Reilys downtown?" She asked, making her move.

"Actually I think he's pretty tired like he told you. Did you watch the news, it was a long case." Emily said dryly.

"What's a few more hours gonna hurt?" She prodded.

"Oh for christs sake!" Emily breathed out before taking Hotch's face between her hands and kissing him.

Hotch was surprised for a moment but quickly leaned into the kiss and tightened his grip around Emily's back.

"Geez, get a room." The woman snapped before stomping away towards the other mothers who were now all looking at Hotch and Emily kiss in the middle of the field.

There kiss continued for only a moment longer before Emily broke away with a smile and said "As much fun as that was, I'm exhausted and would like to go to sleep."

Hotch let out a low chuckle and guided her over to the sideline by their chairs to find a grinning Jack sitting there.

"Is Emmie gonna come home with us?" Jack asked excitedly.

"I don't know buddy, does Emily want to come home with us?" Hotch asked with a smile.

"I'd love to."


	4. Backwards Dances

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Thank you everyone who is reading these, they have been really fun to write! Sorry for the lack of updates life has been pretty hectic...but here you go...this was another idea from Aleja21, thank you! "Jack's school put a twist on it and did a mother son dance. Since Haley is dead, he needs someone else... So to everyone's surprise (especially Hotch since Jack doesn't tell him his plan) Jack could asks Emily if she would be his date to the dance, since he loves her and she's Hotch's girlfriend... on a side note this could also be how the team learns about Emily and Hotch." I don't know when I would place this...maybe season 7 or 8 (for the fact of this story we'll pretend she didn't leave).

"Hey Em, got any plans for the weekend?" JJ asked as she descended the steps from Hotch's office and towards the rest of the team in the bullpen.

"Not yet, just sleeping and maybe eating real food for once." Emily replied with a smile. It had been a long couple of weeks and she was just waiting for the end of the week, unfortunately it was still Monday. They had had back-to-back cases for the past month and she was looking forward to spending the weekend with Hotch. They'd been dating for four months now and they haven't told the team. The only one that knew was Jack. They had barely gotten to spend any time together the past month, aside for the occasional late night hotel rendezvous that had happened during cases. But due to their hectic schedule Hotch had given them the weekend off regardless of whether there was a case, they could hand it off to the back up team if needed. So this weekend Emily's plans were lounging with Hotch all day Saturday since Jessica had Jack, then on Sunday they were going to take Jack to the zoo.

"Wow Emily, so lively." JJ said with a laugh.

"Hey! I would like to sit down and relax this weekend, it's a hell of a lot better then getting pushed down a hill by an unsub and spraining my wrist, which still hurts by the way! Or having a gun held to my head by another because the damn cop didn't clear the room." Emily defended, rubbing at her wrist which still had a splint on it.

"Maybe we should stop calling you princess and call you Daphne instead." Morgan said with a smirk as he sat down on the edge of Emily's desk.

"Hm, and who does that make you then? Scooby?" Emily retorted.

"No, I'm Fred. Strong, leader, and good looking." Morgan said with a wink.

"Ew…" Emily trailed off.

"I think Hotch would be Fred, JJ would be Velma, Emily would be Daphne, you would be Scooby and I would be shaggy." Reid said, rolling his chair by the rest of the group.

"Who would Rossi be then?" JJ asked, thoroughly amused by the conversation.

"Rossi will be no one because I will not be subjected to this insanity." Rossi said, coming out of his office and down the stairs to join the group.

"You can be the grumpy old man who get's mad at the end because 'if it weren't for us kids you would've gotten away with it too,'" Emily teased, which made the rest of the team burst into laughter.

"Call me an old man one more time and I'll stop keeping wine at my house for you." Rossi fake threatened.

"Fine..." Emily said, trying to stifle her laughter.

Once the laughter had died down JJ finally spoke up again… "No but seriously Em, you don't have any plans this weekend?"

"No." Emily said, sensing where this conversation was about to go.

"Not even with your secret boyfriend?" Garcia asked, coming up behind them.

"I don't have a secret boyfriend." Emily said quickly, blushing profusely.

"You're blushing." Rossi pointed out.

"Come on, we know you have a boyfriend, just tell us who it is!" JJ practically begged.

"I do not have a boyfriend! What makes you think I do?" Emily asked, trying to buy herself some time.

"Well for one you keep coming into work happy on Mondays." Reid pitched in.

"And you're always smiling at your phone." Morgan added.

"Plus I heard you on the phone in the parking garage last week." JJ admitted.

"Seriously?" Emily asked, rolling her eyes.

"Yes! Now tell us who it is!" Garcia demanded.

"No." Emily said, crossing her arms in front of her chest.

"Why not?" JJ whined.

"It's none of your business." Emily told them.

"I beg to differ. I want to know who is making my best friend so happy!" Garcia said.

"Plus we need to know so we can give the guy a strict talk." Morgan said.

"No. You are not going to threaten him. No." Emily said, quickly turning to Morgan.

Just as Morgan was about to begin his protest they heard a a little voice scream "EMMIE!" Before they saw jack sprint towards them and jump into Emily's lap.

"Hey Jack, what are you doing here?" Emily asked, surprised, as Jack wrapped his arms around her.

"I have something important to do." Jack said, like his presence was the most obvious thing in the world.

"Jack?" Hotch said, concerned as he walked down the steps towards the team. "What are you doing here?" He finished.

"I have something important to do." He repeated his message to his father.

"Where is aunt Jessica?" Hotch asked, looking around.

"Right here." Jessica said, out of breath as she entered the bullpen.

"What's going on?" Hotch asked, still concerned.

"Well Jack went flying up the stairs and I couldn't keep up." Jessica said, grabbing an empty chair and wheeling it towards them.

"I meant why are you guys here?" Hotch clarified.

"Jack has been insufferable all day. Saying her needs to come to your office and do something important. He wouldn't take no for an answer."

"Shouldn't you be in school little man?" Rossi asked.

"It's Columbus Day, we don't have school today." Jack answered.

"Okay, Jack. You're here now. What did you need to do?" Jessica asked him.

"It's a secret." Jack replied.

"Jack…" Jessica said in a warning tone.

"Fine…" Jack said as he got up from Emily's lap. "Emmie follow me." Jack said, grabbing Emily's hand and leading her away from the group.

"Jack what's going on?" Hotch asked, following them.

"No dad, you can't come. It's a secret." Jack said as he stopped with a now grinning Emily at the bottom of the stairs.

"It's okay, I think I can handle this." Emily said, trying not to laugh at how serious Jack was being.

Jack glared at his father as he guided Emily up the stairs and into the round table room, leaving a very confused team downstairs.

"Jack what's going on buddy?" Emily asked him when they got in the room.

Jack shut the door and sat down next to Emily at the table.

"I have to ask you something." Jack said with wide eyes.

"Okay…what is it?" Emily asked.

"I have to tell you something first." Jack said defiantly as he glanced out the window to see his father and the team all looking at them from the window.

"Okay…" Emily trailed off.

"My school is having a dance this weekend." Jack started "Ms. Teklaid said it's a special dance cause we're doing it in reverse. She said that usually the schools have a father daughter dance, but we're having mother son dance. At least that's what she said. And all my friends are going with their mom's and I really wanna go too." Jack said, starting to get a sad expression on his face.

"Oh, Jack…" Emily said, feeling terrible for the young boy.

"I'm not done yet." Jack said, shooting his head up and looking at Emily.

"Okay, sorry." Emily apologized.

"Anyways…so you're daddy's girlfriend right?" Jack asked.

"I guess so, yeah." Emily said, starting to smile at the thought.

"So if you're daddy's girlfriend that means you're kinda like my mom right?" Jack asked, hopefully.

"I don't know…" Emily said, knowing where this conversation was headed.

"Well I think it does…Johnny was telling me all the things his mommy does for him, like makes him pancakes and takes him the park and kisses him when he get's hurt. And you do all that for me right?" Jack asked.

"Yeah, I guess I do." Emily said, following the boys' logic.

"So that kinda makes you my mom." Jack said.

"Kind of." Emily said, treading lightly.

"Emmie will you take me to the dance on Saturday?" Jack said quickly, trying to get the question over with.

Emily smiled; she could feel the tears building up in her eyes as she looked at the little boy sitting in front of her.

"I would love to take you to the dance, Jack." Emily said with a smile. Causing Jack to jump out of his chair and into Emily's arms again. "Wait, did you ask your father about this?" Emily asked, growing slightly concerned as to what Hotch would think.

"No…" Jack admitted sheepishly putting his head down on Emily's shoulder.

"Well I'll tell you what, I'll give you a piggy back ride down there and you can go ask him, okay?" Emily proposed.

"Okay." Jack agreed, hoping down so Emily could stand up and he could climb onto her back.

The pair walked out of the room and down the stairs to meet the rest of the team by Emily's desk with their very confused looks.

"Is everything okay?" Hotch asked, breaking the silence.

"Yes, no, well sort of…Jack you have you ask your dad." Emily stammered.

"Ask me what?" Hotch asked, looking at his son who was hanging on Emily's back.

"Can Emmie take me to the mother son dance at school on Saturday, she said she would, she's like my mom anyways, you guys kiss and hold hands all the time and Emmie tucks me in and makes me pancakes in the morning." Jack blurted out, shocking the entire team.

Hotch turned brick red, as did Emily as he tried not to look at the gaping faces of the rest of their team.

"If Emily said she would, I don't see why not." Hotch answered, trying to avoid his team.

"YAY!" Jack shouted, hugging Emily from his position on her back.

"We'll talk about it more when we get home okay? Emily and I still have work to do so Jessica will take you home we'll be there in a few hours." Hotch said, grabbing Jack off of Emily so he could give him a hug. With that, Jessica led Jack out of the bullpen.

"I think I need some more coffee." Emily quickly, trying to get away from the situation, before Rossi stepped in front of her and blocked her path.

"So, we're you guys ever gonna tell us?" JJ asked.

"Eventually…it's only been a few months." Emily said turning around and looking at the rest of the team.

"And when did this start?" Rossi asked, going into protective mode.

"The fourth of July picnic we had…" Hotch admitted quietly.

"Oh my god, is that where you were on the fifth when I called you?" Garcia nearly shrieked.

"Yeah…" Emily admitted.

"Wait, is that why you weren't in your room last week when I came to give you a clean shirt after the unsub got blood on it?" JJ asked after her realization.

"Yeah…" Emily repeated.

"Well…I'm happy for you two." JJ said, getting nods of agreement from the team.

"Now Hotch, I know you're our boss and all but you're coming to drinks with Rossi, Reid and I on Friday night so we can have a little conversation, got it?" Morgan asked.

"Morgan I said no threatening." Emily said sternly.

"I didn't say anything about a threat..."


	5. The One and Only Spidercat

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This is another lovely request from Aleja21! "Since it seems Emily's cat Sergio is an indoor/outdoor cat, what if he returned from one of his adventures w. a rescue kitten. And since she doesn't have time to care for it, so she gives the kitten to Jack, so that he has a pet to take care of." Thanks for the wonderful submissions! Also thank you for sticking with me since I take forever to update!

"Serg, where are you?" Emily shouted into her dark apartment as she tiredly opened the door and dropped her key in the bowl on the hutch. She dropped her purse on the ground next to the hutch and opened the closet to hang up her snow soaked coat. She toed off her boots on the mat next to the closet and slowly padded her way into the kitchen of her apartment. She hit the light switch on her way into the kitchen, flooding it with light, a stark contrast to the darkness of the night outside. Reaching into the cupboard she grabbed a wine glass and poured herself a generous portion of red wine from the fridge. She glanced at the clock, 11:30pm, as she walked into her living room and plopped down on the couch. She picked up the remote and turned the TV on to some late night talk show she cared nothing about as she took a long sip from her glass.  _Should I call him?_ Emily asked herself as she set her glass down on the coffee table.  _No, he's probably sleeping; it's not a big deal._ She decided taking another long sip of her wine. She jumped slightly when she heard the shrill noise of her phone go off, alerting her she had a text.

' _How are you doing?'_ The message read, as Aaron Hotchners smiling face appeared next to it. She took a deep breath; she should have known he wouldn't forget about the comment she made as they were packing up case files an hour ago. She shouldn't have made that damn comment, no one else noticed but of course nothing could slip past Aaron Hotchner.

' _Fine.'_ She replied simply.

' _Emily…'_  He prodded.

' _I'm fine. Promise.'_  She texted back, trying to get him to stop worrying.

' _You're not fine. If you were you wouldn't have rushed out without saying anything tonight.'_  He pointed out.

' _Do you want me to come over there?'_  He asked, not waiting for her response.

Emily let out a sigh, as much as she would love for him to come over there and comfort her she knew he had Jack and she didn't want him to have to wake the boy up just because she couldn't handle herself.

' _No, I'll be fine. I have Sergio and wine and crappy TV. All a girl could want. I'll call you in the morning okay?'_  She replied, trying to put him at ease.

' _Okay, call me if you need anything, got it?'_  He replied almost immediately.

' _Got it.'_

Emily put her phone down and took another sip of wine before grabbing the remote and flipping through the channels until she found a late night SVU marathon running and decided to keep it on that. She didn't care if she dealt with crime all day, she still loved the show, and Benson reminded her of herself. Emily lay there on her couch for a good half an hour before she suddenly realized she never actually found Sergio, and just as she was about to get up he suddenly jumped up onto her lap and cuddled into her stomach.

"Whoa, Serg, you scared me." Emily said, petting his wet fur, getting a loud meow in response.

Emily settled back into the couch and drank her wine, she hadn't even bothered to change or anything, just going straight to the wine and then directly to the couch. Just as Emily was begging to dose off she saw a flash of gray from the corner of her eye dash from the kitchen and past her. She reacted on instinct and jumped up, grabbing her gun from its holster as she scoured her apartment for the unseen assailant. She spun around quickly as something small darted behind her and she nearly screamed. Emily backed up slowly to the light switch and held her gun out with one hand and turned the lights on with another.

"What the hell?!" Emily shouted as she holstered her weapon and stared wide-eyed at the gray kitten that was suddenly perched atop her sofa. She watched skeptically as Sergio sprung up from his position on the couch and made his way over to the kitten before licking it and looking back at Emily.

"Oh Serg, thanks for telling me you were bringing a friend home." Emily said sarcastically to the empty room, getting a meow in response.

Emily looked out through the window and saw nothing but white as she tried to decide her next move. On one hand, she couldn't keep the kitten; she didn't have enough time to take care of it. But on the other hand, she couldn't send that poor thing outside by itself in the snow.

"You can stay, but just until I find a new home for you, got it." Emily said, pointing at the small kitten that was staring at her.

Emily went over to the side window she left open for Sergio and closed it, so he wouldn't wander off during the night and get lost. She stared for a few minutes at the kitten that was now playing with Sergio before moving over to the coffee table and gulping down the rest of her wine. She put the glass in the sink and climbed the stairs to her bedroom. She stopped at the top of the steps and said, "No funny business tonight, got it." To the cats who both stopped in their tracks at hearing her voice. Emily let out a loud sigh before changing into her pajamas and going to bed.

* * *

"Emmie wake up!" is what Emily awoke to, a yelling Jack who was now bouncing on the bed.

"Jack, let her sleep, get out of there." Hotch said, out of breath from just having chased Jack up the stairs.

"Too bad, I'm already awake, and that means I'M GONNA TICKLE YOU!" Emily said, grabbing Jack by the legs and tickling at his stomach.

"Daddy!" Jack said in between fits of laughter "Daddy save me!"

"Nope, you brought this on yourself buddy." Hotch said with a smile.

"Maybe we should tickle your daddy" Emily suggested with a smirk, looking Hotch up and down, taking in the sight of her 'kind of boyfriend' in jeans and t-shirt that accented his muscles.

"Don't you dare." Hotch said with mock anger as he came around to the other side of the bed and sat down next to Jack who was now laying in between the two.

"Good morning, why are you in my apartment." Emily said with a smile as Jack made himself comfortable in the bed by stealing Emily's pillow.

"We came to check on you." Hoch told her, his face flooded with concern.

"And make you pancakes!" Jack added happily.

"And make you pancakes." Hotch repeated with a smile.

"I told you I was fine." Emily protested, making no move to get up from the bed.

"And I know you weren't." Hotch rebutted.

"Well I can honestly say I'm feeling much better now." Emily said hugging Jack from the side which in turn made Jack curl into her.

"Hey buddy, why don't you go find Sergio so I can talk to Emily for a minute." Hotch suggested.

"Okay daddy" Jack said happily as he jumped up and ran out of the bedroom.

"So how are you really feeling?" Hotch asked, concerned, moving closer to Emily and pulling her into his arms.

"Better, now that you guys are here." Emily said, letting out a sigh and settling into his chest.

"Really? Then why is your gun on the nightstand and not in the safe." Hotch asked, glancing at the open weapon on the table.

"No reason…Maybe I just like to sleep with a gun." Emily said with a raise of her eyebrow.

"Emily…" Hotch trailed off.

"Okay, I got scared last night and must have forgot to put it away." Emily admitted, burying her face in his chest.

"And what scared you?" Hotch asked, trying to get her to open up.

"It's nothing, Sergio was just followed in by a stray cat and I didn't see it come in so it freaked me out when it ran across the room." Emily told him, her face turning red.

"What did you do with the cat?" Hotch asked.

"It's somewhere, probably with Sergio. I didn't wanna send it back outside with all the snow. But there's no way in hell I'm keeping it. There's not enough room here for two cats and I don't have time to take care of a kitten." Emily rambled.

"So you have an unknown kitten running around your apartment, probably with my son." Hotch said with a laugh.

"Essentially yes. There is a kitten somewhere here…you know anyone that wants a kitten?" Emily asked jokingly.

"Put it in a box and leave it on Rossi's steps." Hotch joked.

"I'd give it a week before he fell completely in love with it. It's adorable." Emily said.

"Well, let's go find this kitten then." Hotch said, getting up and grabbing Emily's arm, pulling her up too.

"You're still making me pancakes right?" Emily asked as they walked out of the bedroom hand in hand.

"Yes." Hotch said as they descended the stairs only to find Jack in the living room playing with two cats.

"Daddy, Emmie got a new kitty!" Jack shouted excitedly.

"Emmie did not get a new kitty, the kitty decided to move in." Emily deadpanned as she made her way into the kitchen to make coffee.

"What's its name Emmie?" Jack asked, ignoring Emily's previous statement.

"How about you give it a name buddy." Emily suggested as she waiting for the coffee to start its drip.

"Daddy what should I name it?" Jack asked his father, who was in the kitchen looking for supplies to make pancakes.

"I don't know, you think of something while I make pancakes." Hotch said as he began mixing the ingredients together.

"How about Agent Kitty, daddy?" Jack asked happily.

Both Emily and Hotch stifled their laughter as they tried to figure out a more reasonable name for a cat.

"How about Reid." Emily suggested, earning a halfhearted glare from Hotch.

"No…that's boring." Jack pouted before jumping up excitedly and saying "SPIDERCAT", startling both of them.

"What?" Emily asked with a laugh.

"His name is Spidercat." Jack stated matter-of-factly.

"What if it's a girl?" Hotch asked him.

"It still works." Jack reasoned.

"Spidercat it is then." Emily smiled, pouring her and Hotch fresh cups of coffee.

"Jack go wash your hands before I start breakfast." Hotch told him as he continued to play with the two cats.

"Okay…" Jack said, begrudgingly getting up and walking up the stairs.

"You know…you could take the kitten with you…" Emily suggested lightly as she sipped at her coffee.

"And why would we do that?" Hotch asked.

"Teach Jack some responsibility, plus he loves Sergio and I know he would love a kitten of his own." Emily said meaningfully.

"I don't know…" Hotch trailed off.

"Look, I'll teach him how to take care of a cat, and Jacks home all the time so he should have no problem taking care of it. The most you'll have to do is buy the supplies and let the two be." Emily explained.

"Why don't you ask Jack if he really does indeed want a kitten." Hotch said, not being able to tell her no.

"Emmie where are the rest of the cat toys?" Jack asked as he sprinted down the stairs.

"In the closet over there, but first come over here buddy and sit at the stool." Emily told him. Jack did as he was told and hurriedly climbed up on the stool across her and Hotch.

"What?" He asked.

"What would you say about taking Spidercat home and taking care of him?" Emily asked him softly.

"DADDY ARE WE KEEPING HIM?" Jack immediately shouted.

"Only if you promise to take care of him." Hotch told him.

"I PROMISE, I PROMISE, I PROMISE!" He yelled excitedly as he jumped down from the stool and ran around the kitchen island to hug both his father and Emily.

"DO YOU HEAR THAT SPIDERCAT? YOU GET TO COME HOME WITH ME!" Jack shouted as he ran into the living room, in search of his new cat.


	6. Thanksgiving Suprises

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Thank you Aleja21 for another wonderful submission! "Full team turkey day celebration and when they sit down for dinner they go around saying what they're thankful for. When they get to Jack he says he's thankful for his Emmy. So Garcia asks if Emmy is his girlfriend and Jack tells her no and points to Emily telling her Emmy is his dad's girlfriend."

JJ let out a long sigh as she disembarked the jet while she read the text message she had just received.

"What's wrong?" Emily asked, coming up behind her.

"Well, It's already eleven o'clock and our flight was supposed to leave at six. It looks like Will and I aren't making it to my moms for thanksgiving this year." JJ replied sadly.

"I know the feeling, I was supposed to be on a plane to Chicago at seven." Morgan added.

"Okay, here's an idea, why doesn't everyone just come over to my place tomorrow for thanksgiving dinner?" Rossi suggested, seeing how sad his friends were about missing out on seeing their families for the holidays.

"No, you don't have to do that, it's okay." JJ replied half-heartedly.

"No. I insist. Everyone. Since I'm sure Hotch you don't have any plans either. You either Emily." Rossi added.

"Hey!" Emily said faux offended before continuing "You're right though, my mother is over seas until February so I was just going to make a turkey frozen dinner and call it a day."

"Well now you'll get an actual thanksgiving dinner. Aaron?" Rossi said.

"Fine." Hotch said, glaring at Rossi for calling him out on his lack of thanksgiving plans.

"Okay, It's settled, everyone be at my house at four o'clock tomorrow evening and we will have a family thanksgiving." Rossi said proudly before strutting off to his car.

The team all nodded and agreed before going to their respective cars as well, and going home.

* * *

It was quarter to four when Rossi heard the doorbell ring, signaling the arrival of some of his team members. He quickly turned the stove down for the gravy and went to the front door and opened it, reveling JJ, Will and Henry all dressed very nicely, with JJ holding a bottle of wine.

"Happy Thanksgiving." JJ said with a smile as she stepped into Rossi's house, giving him a quick hug on her way in.

"Hey buddy, you hungry?" Rossi asked, kneeling down so he was eye level with Henry.

"Yeah! Is Jack here yet?" He asked excitedly, also giving Rossi a big hug.

"Nope, he should be here soon though, you guys are the first ones here. Why don't you get settled in the living room, dinner should be ready by four thirty, I'm running a little late." Rossi said, making his way back into the kitchen.

"Take your time, this was last minute anyways." JJ said as she took her coat off and put it in the office off of the living room where they always put their coats.

"Henry, you know where the toys are, go ahead and get them out, or you can set up the Wii if you like." Rossi shouted from the kitchen.

"Okay!" Henry said, moving over to the TV cabinet and opening it up, turning on the Wii and the TV. Just as he got bowling set up the doorbell rang again.

"I got it." JJ shouted, opening the door to reveal Morgan, Kevin, and Garcia.

"Hello my blonde haired beauty." Garcia said, strutting into the house followed by the men.

"Hi Garcia." JJ said with a laugh "We're in the living room, Rossi's still cooking." She finished, leading them into the living room.

"Okay, where is my fairy god child." Garcia said, closing her eyes, pretending not to see Henry.

"I'm right here!" Henry said with a laugh as he ran over to Garcia and gave her a hug.

"Is anyone else here?" Morgan asked.

"Hotch, Jack, and Emily should be here in like ten minutes." JJ replied reading the text message Emily had just sent her.

"Why is she riding with them?" Morgan asked after her put his jacket in the office and sat down on the couch in the living room next to Will.

"Her garage door got stuck or something so Hotch said he'd pick her up his way over with Jack." JJ explained.

"She's just trying to get out of thanksgiving with everyone." Kevin said with a laugh.

"Well, Emily's not really a holiday kind of person. Something about being stuck with uptight politicians every holiday as a child made her hate it." JJ told them.

"Well, I guess that makes sense..." Kevin replied. "What about Reid? Is he coming?" He added.

"Yeah, he'll be here in like five minutes." JJ answered.

"Ah, so the whole gang is gonna be here, nice!" Kevin said, sitting down on the couch with the guys as Garcia started a bowling match with Henry.

They sat making small talk for a few minutes before the doorbell rang again and they Reid in before they began making small talk again for about fifteen minutes and at some point someone turned some music on.

"Hey guys." Emily said with a smile as she walked into the living room with Hotch and Jack.

"Hey! How did you get in the door was locked?" JJ asked, swearing she didn't hear the doorbell ring.

"We rang the doorbell like three times but no one answered, so I let us in…I have a key." Emily said, taking off her jacket and kneeling down to unzip Jack's jacket and take it off him before Hotch grabbed all of their jackets and brought them into the office.

"What happened with your garage door princess?" Morgan said sarcastically, earning him a glare from Emily as she took a glass of wine that JJ had poured her ten minutes ago.

"It's stuck. I called the repairman but since it's a holiday he won't come fix it until Monday." Emily said, annoyed.

"I bet between genius and I we could fix it tomorrow." Morgan suggested.

"Yeah, probably, we fixed JJ's TV last month." Reid added.

"Seriously? Sure, that'd be great!" Emily replied.

"No problem, what time do you wanna go over there?" Morgan asked, looking at Reid.

"Like one? It should only take an hour or two." Reid said, taking a sip of his water.

"Wow guy's, that's awesome, thanks. I'll have the fridge stocked with beer and I'll order you dinner when you're done." Emily promised, taking a sip of her wine as she sat down on the arm of the chair JJ was sitting in.

"How was your night?" JJ asked knowingly, raising her eyebrow and smirking. Getting an elbow in the ribs.

"Uneventful. I went to bed when I got home and slept in this morning." Emily replied, thankful that everyone else was absorbed in their conversations so they didn't hear theirs.

"Sure…I'm sure you went right to bed when you got home…" JJ said with a grin, taking a sip of her wine.

"Shut up." Emily told her, just as Rossi walked in.

"Ah, Welcome, welcome. Dinner is done, if you'd follow me into the dining room we can get started." Rossi said, leading everyone out of the living room and into their chairs in the dining room where everything was already set out and ready.

"Wow, Dave, this is incredible." Hotch said as he took a seat at the end of the table next to Emily with Jack sitting next to Emily.

"Well, It's thanksgiving. If there is any time to go overboard, it is today. But, before we eat I think we should go around the table and say what we are thankful for." Rossi suggested, sitting at the head of the table after everyone had taken their seats.

"Okay, I'll start." Garcia said, "I'm thankful for spending thanksgiving with all of you." She finished sweetly.

"I guess it's my turn. I'm thankful that none of us had to work today." Kevin said

"I'm thankful that we put that bastard in jail yesterday." Morgan told them.

"I'm thankful for alcohol." Emily said bluntly as she took a sip of wine.

"Ditto." JJ said with a laugh.

"Wow guys." Morgan said with a laugh.

"I'm thankful for a these few days off." Hotch said, ignoring Emily and JJ's laughter.

"Is it my turn?" Jack asked hopefully.

"Yup bud, what are you thankful for?" Rossi asked.

"I'm thankful for Emmy!" Jack said with a huge smile.

"Aw that's sweet." Garcia said "Why are you thankful for Emmy?" she continued.

"Cause she gives the bestest hugs, she makes the bestest breakfast and she's really nice." Jack explained, looking up at Emily from his seat.

"That's sweet Jack, thank you." Emily said, trying to hold back her tears as she gave the boy a side hug.

"Sounds like Emily is your girlfriend." Garcia joked.

"No, she's daddy's." Jack said, making Emily, Hotch and JJ all choke on their wine.

"What?" Garcia asked, surprised.

"Emmy is Daddy's girlfriend. They kiss all the time and she sleeps over. That means she's his girlfriend right." Jack said, looking around the shocked faces of everyone at the table.

"Care to explain?" Rossi asked, starting to serve himself and passing the food along.

"Nope." Emily said, chugging the rest of her wine along with JJ.

"How long has this been going on?" Reid asked.

"Ten Months." Hotch answered, looking down at the food he was serving himself.

"Thanks for telling us guys, really appreciate it." Morgan said sarcastically.

"Come on. What reason would we have to tell you right away? You are nosy, and we wanted to keep it to ourselves for a while." Emily said, looking over to Morgan and Garcia.

"Then how come JJ knew? She's not acting nearly as surprised as she should be." Garcia asked.

"I didn't want to know, trust me. I accidently walked in on them at Emily's one morning." JJ said, pouring another glass of wine for herself then passing the bottle over to Emily.

"Well. I'm thankful that we are all here, and that we are all happy." Rossi said, trying to spare Hotch and Emily from further interrogation.

"Yes. Now I'll be extra thankful if we can just eat, and talk about this later." Emily said.

"Fine. But we are not done talking about this." Garcia said as everyone began to eat.

* * *

The rest of the evening went fairly smoothly; the team got the rest of their questions in after dinner, and after several drinks between them. Everyone had retired to their homes and it was just Hotch, Emily and Jack left when they decided to leave. They drove in silence, with Jack falling asleep in the back seat on the way home. When they got back to Hotch's apartment, he rounded to the back of the car and picked up a still asleep jack up and carried him, followed by Emily into the apartment. After Hotch had put Jack to bed he came back into the living room to find Emily reading a book on the sofa.

"You know what." Hotch said, sitting down next to Emily and wrapping his arm around her.

"What?" Emily asked, putting her book down in her lap.

"I never got to say what I was really thankful for." Hotch said.

"You said you were thankful for the days off… if that's not what you're really thankful for, then what is?" Emily asked with a soft smile.

"I'm really thankful for you." Hotch said, kissing her softly.


	7. Trick or Treat

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Thank you to the wonderful Aleja21 for another request. 'So Emily has just moved back to the states to be w/ Hotch and Jack. She's not working yet and Hotch is on a case and it's Halloween weekend. So Emily goes ahead and does the pumpkin carving w/ Jack and then takes him trick or treating.' I know this is a Halloween fic and I'm sorry for the delay but trust me, Criminal Justice Pre-law is not a major that gives you a lot of free time. I also have a job on top of this so, thank you for being patient with me.
> 
> Also I know this one is halloween, but I am a piece of shit and didn't update soon enough. So I decided to do the thanksgiving one first since it was thanksgiving and then work on this one. Thanks.

Emily sat back into the comfy love seat, gripping her cup of coffee as she awaited the phone call she was supposed to be getting at eight am. She had a few minutes to spare, it was only seven fifty-five, and if he was anything, he was punctual. She blew on her coffee slightly, attempting to cool it down a bit after she already burned her tongue in her half awake state of drinking five minutes ago. It was a miracle she had managed to get Jack up and on the bus by seven thirty.  _Ring ring._ There it was, the call she had been waiting all night for.

"Good morning." Emily said happily over the phone.

"Good morning to you too…albeit I only went to sleep a few hours ago, so It's probably not as good for me as it is for you." Aaron Hotchner replied tiredly.

"Well, hopefully you can come home and get a good nights sleep. Although I do a few plans for you before that sleep will actually happen seeing as though I haven't seen you in a week and a half." Emily said.

"About that…" Hotch said, trailing off.

"No, come on. You guys said you were close last night." Emily whined.

"We were. It was a dead end. Sorry. It doesn't look like we'll be getting home until after the weekend. Can you tell Jack I'm sorry? I'll call this afternoon after school, I was supposed to take him trick or treating this year instead of Jessica." Hotch said sadly.

"Aaron…"

"I know, I'll try and make it up to him when I get back. I'll even take off for next Halloween so I can take him no matter what." Hotch promised.

"You're gonna have to buy him a pony to make up for this one." Emily said dryly, picturing the young boy who had been over the moon when his father told him last week that he'd take him trick or treating this year.

"I know. Can you call Jessica for me…She'll get mad if I ask her, but she likes you…" Hotch asked her nicely.

"No, I'm not calling Jessica. She deserves the night off…I'll take him." Emily replied with a sigh.

"Emily you don't have to take him." Hotch protested.

"Aaron, I don't start my new job until the New Year so am literally sitting around the house doing nothing. Plus I love you, and I love Jack. So yes Aaron, I will be taking him trick or treating." Emily replied defiantly.

"Okay, fine. But there is one more thing that we usually do on Halloween." Hotch said.

"And what's that?"

"Carve pumpkins." Hotch said.

"Where do you put the pumpkins? This is an apartment." Emily wondered.

"On the balcony, it overlooks the street, so people can still see them. But you're right, it'll be better next year when we're moved into the brownstone." Hotch told her.

"Do I have to go buy pumpkins or do you have them already?" Emily wondered, seeing as though she'd only been living with them for about two weeks since she left London office of Interpol. But she couldn't start her new position at the DC Crimes Against Children Unit at Interpol until after the current leader retired, which wasn't happening until January.

"They're in the closet in the front hall…I'm warning you, they're pretty heavy. Be careful." Hotch said with a laugh.

"I think I can handle picking up a pumpkin, Aaron." Emily said, smiling over the phone.

"I'm sure you can…but I have to go okay? I'll call you later when Jacks done with school. I love you." Hotch said.

"I love you too." Emily replied before hanging up the phone.

* * *

Emily spent the rest of the day driving around town looking for pumpkin carving materials, which Hotch had neglected to buy, saying he could do it with a normal knife. Which Emily wasn't about to try since it was indeed her first time carving pumpkins.

Once she had finally found a basic starter pack she grabbed a coffee and made her way back to the apartment just in time to get Jack off the bus.

"Emmy! Guess what we did at school today!" Jack shouted as he ran down the bus steps and jumped into Emily's arms to give her a hug like he did every day after school.

"What did you do?" Emily asked excitedly as she put him down and led him into the apartment building.

"We went trick or treating in all the classrooms, I got lots of stuff, the teachers wouldn't give out candy cause they said we'd get enough candy tonight so they gave us stuff like pencils and little toys. It was awesome!" Jack relayed as they rode in the elevator to their floor.

"Wow, that sounds like fun!" Emily told him.

"Is daddy home? I wanna show him all the stuff I got!" Jack said.

"Hey buddy, there's something I have to tell you…" Emily said as they got out of the elevator and walked to their apartment down the hall.

"Daddy's not coming home tonight is he?" Jack said sadly as he dropped his backpack by the front door and sulked into the living room.

"The case went a little longer than they thought. He should be back this weekend some time okay? But there is a little good news." Emily said, hoping to cheer him up a bit.

"What's the good news?" He asked, barely looking up.

"I get to carve pumpkins with you and take you trick or treating." Emily said in her most enthusiastic tone she could manage.

"Really?!" Jack asked, perking up significantly.

"Yup!" I got everything sit out in the kitchen already to carve the pumpkins, but we gotta do it quick cause trick or treating starts at six and it's already four." Emily told him.

"Okay!" Jack said, shooting up from the couch and running into the kitchen, followed by Emily.

* * *

They managed to carve the pumpkins with no injuries, even when they decided to Skype call with Hotch in the middle of it so they wouldn't waste time. They weren't the best-looking Jack-o-lanterns but they were their jack-o-lanterns, and Jack seemed happy with them, so so was Emily.

"Okay, it's five thirty now, I'm gonna make you a sandwich quick you go get changed into your costume and then we'll head out okay?" Emily told him.

Jack did as he was told and they managed to get out the door at precisely six o'clock and into the hallway to start trick or treating in the building. Emily followed patiently as Jack stopped at every door that had the trick or treating sign in front of them and said his cute little 'trick or treat!'. He managed to get a good amount of candy, enough that they had to stop back at the apartment once to empty his container.

It wasn't until eight o'clock that they managed to get back to the apartment. Jack piled all his candy on the counter before Emily insisted he go take a bath before he got to eat any of it. Which he did, although it was a very short bath. Emily took the time that he was changing into his pajamas to look through his candy to make sure there weren't any holes or opened wrappers before she put it all back in the pile and made a hot chocolate for the both of them.

"Can I eat some now?" Jack practically begged as he jumped up onto one of the stools in the kitchen, across from where Emily was standing.

"You can pick out five pieces to eat, other wise you'll get a tummy ache." Emily told him, leaning over the counter and resting her elbows on it while her hands gripped her mug of hot chocolate.

Jack picked out his five pieces of candy and he ate them with his hot chocolate as he regaled Emily about the rest of his school day.

Emily was about to carry him up to bed from the couch where he had fallen asleep watching Halloweentown at nine thirty when she heard the door creek open behind them to reveal Hotch walking in with his go bag.

"Hey! When did you get back?" Emily asked happily as she gave Hotch a big hug followed by a soft kiss to his lips.

"About twenty minutes ago, we caught the guy on a speeding ticket and I thought I'd surprise you guys, but I guess Jack fell asleep." Hotch said, following Emily into the living room.

"Yeah, about a half an hour ago. He had quite the eventful day, which I'm sure he'll be more than happy to tell you about in the morning." Emily said as she watched Hotch pick up his sleeping son.

"Daddy!" Jack said excitedly, barely awake as he nuzzled into his father further.

"Hey bud, go back to sleep, we can talk in the morning okay." Hotch told him softly as he carried him his bedroom.

"Okay daddy, Emmy and I had fun tonight…I just wanted you to know that." He slurred, before falling back asleep.

"I'm sure you did." Hotch said, laying him down in bed, and covering him with his blankets.

Hotch walked back into the living room to find Emily curled up on the couch, drinking a glass of wine as she watched some movie in French that he didn't understand.

"You know, when you watch movies in another language, without the subtitles, I'm tempted just to walk out sometimes." Hotch said playfully as he pushed Emily up from the end of the couch so she was laying on him instead of pillows.

"And why is that?" Emily asked, settling into him.

"Because one, I can't watch them with you, and two, you pay more attention to the movie, then me." Hotch told her.

"Well, I could always turn off the movie and pretend to sleep." Emily suggested.

"And why would you pretend to sleep?" Hotch asked, knowing where this was going.

"Cause then maybe you'll pick me up and bring me to bed." Emily said, sitting up and putting her glass of wine down on the coffee table.

"I will take you to bed, but you won't be sleeping." Hotch said with a smirk as he got up and picked Emily up, much to her surprise, and carried her into the bedroom.


	8. That Little Green Monster

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Thank you NicknHotchfan for the wonderful prompt of 'So the teams on a case in a small southern town somewhere, and the older secretary lady for the police chief likes to grab Hotch's butt when he walks past her. But Hotch just brushes it off as an accident but then it happens multiple times and Emily notices and decides to take action.' I will give you all fair warning, it is thanksgiving and I have had wine, so this may get a little sassier than you bargained for. (What I mean by that is my dialogue for Emily usually gets snarkier when I've been drinking and I have no idea why.)

"JJ can you pass me another pile please?" Emily asked as they looked up from the pile of phone records she was looking through in the very small, outdated police station in Awesta, Texas.

JJ passed her a napkin and looked back down at the records they were sifting through again before grumbling, "Why couldn't we have gone to a town that has actually computerized their records."

"Because that would suck all the fun out of Texas." Emily replied sarcastically.

"I hate Texas." JJ said, as she took a sip of her water from the bottle one of the officers had given her an hour ago.

"Well, think of it this way. At least we get to sit in the air conditioning while Morgan and Reid traipse all over the town interviewing people." Emily said, trying to cheer JJ up.

"True…very true…" JJ admitted, "I'm gonna take a break. My eyes hurt and I'm pretty sure there's nothing here anyways. Half of the phone records are from eighty year olds who've died in the past two years." JJ continued as she got up from her chair and stretched a little before walking out of the conference room they were sitting in.

"Have fun." Emily shouted with a laugh as she watched JJ leave the room. Emily sat back in her chair, needing a break herself. They had been called out to this town on Monday when two of the local girls had gone missing. Then two more after they had found the first two dead. Well, now it was Friday and the only lead they had to go on was the fact that one of the girls had been making strange phone calls over the past couple weeks. It turned out that she was calling her drug dealer, but Hotch wanted them to keep going through the phone records just in case, since they didn't have any other leads. Just when she was about to start looking through the records again, her phone dinged, alerting her that she had a new text message. She looked at the ID and it was from JJ so she opened up the message and it was nothing but a picture of a very attractive officer who obviously didn't know his picture was being taken, followed by a message saying ' _He's cute right. How about him? I could totally set you up, give me like 10 min'._

Emily let out a laugh before responding with  _'No. Why would I go out with someone that lives in Texas? Besides, you just said you hated it here.'_

' _Correction. I hate the state. Not the attractive men.'_  JJ replied.

' _Just get back in here and do your share of the work Mrs. Married and has a child.'_

' _Ughhhhhhh fine.'_  JJ finished before Emily saw her walk back into the room.

"You're no fun." JJ pouted as she sat back down at her chair.

"Okay, for the last time. I am seeing someone. I don't need you to set me up with random guys we meet on cases." Emily said with faux annoyance as she dramatically turned the page of one of the files.

"Well I will believe it when I actually meet this man. You're a good liar. How do I know you're not lying about it to get out of dating people." JJ shot back.

"Why would I lie to you about having a boyfriend?" Emily asked, skimming through the phone record.

"Because, you don't like it when I try to set you up with people.' JJ replied.

"Well you are right about that. But I promise I'm not lying to you. I swear on my grave that I actually have a boyfriend." Emily said.

"No fair, you can't swear on your grave since you  _died_  already." JJ laughed.

"It's  _my_  grave I'll swear on it if I want to." Emily replied as she laughed too.

"Are you swearing on your grave again?" Hotch asked as he walked into the room.

"Nope, I wouldn't do that because you said that is too dark." Emily replied innocently.

"Stop it. It's not funny." Hotch said with fake authority.

"Fine. I promise to stop swearing on my grave." Emily said.

"You promised that last week. This is why I don't believe you about your boyfriend." JJ replied.

"You have a boyfriend?" Hotch choked out, taken aback by JJ's statement.

"Well, she says she does, but I don't believe her. Oh! How about you invite this guy to dinner and I'll go with. You don't have to tell everyone else. Just me!" JJ practically begged.

"Wow JJ, and no. You will meet him when I am ready for you guys to meet him." Emily told her.

"Oh and JJ, an officer out there would like to know why you took his picture a few minutes ago, so would you please go explain yourself." Hotch said with a straight face as he watched JJ turn brick red.

"Yes sir…" JJ said, embarrassed as she walked out of the room.

"How many more files of phone records do you have to go through?" Hotch asked.

"I think four more between the two of us." Emily replied.

"It's almost seven, I'm gonna go talk to the Chief and see if we can get some food in here, everyone else is on their way back." Hotch said as he left the room.

Hotch walked out of the conference room and towards the Chiefs office, stopping near the secretary.

"Can I go in?" Hotch asked the older woman sitting at her desk typing.

"Yes sir, you can always go in." The woman said with a hint of something Hotch couldn't identify.

Hotch walked past the women and could've sworn he felt something touch his butt, but he brushed it off and entered the chiefs office.

"Hi, I hope I'm not interrupting anything." Hotch said as he walked in to see the Chief reading a file.

"Nope, you're fine. What can I do for you?" The chief asked.

"Is there any way I can get some food in the conference room for my team? They haven't eaten all day." Hotch replied.

"Sure, any preference for your agents? Eddie's pizza is good and I can get some of that over here in about half an hour if that'll do you." He told him.

"That'll work. Any kind will be fine, they're not picky. Thank you." Hotch said, before leaving the office and shutting the door behind him.

He started to walk past the secretary again but this time he moved slightly over so he would be barely in reach of her hand. Yet, sure enough, he felt her hand on his ass when he walked by. He decided to ignore it again, opting to go back into the conference room where the reset of his team was now sitting looking tired and hungry.

"Pizza is on its way, about half an hour and it should be here. Why don't you guys just take a break until then." Hotch suggested, sitting down next to Emily.

"Fine by me." Morgan said, grabbing a water bottle that JJ was handing to him.

"Hey, Hotch, could you give these reports to the chief. He said he wanted them, but I forgot about it until now." Rossi said in between drinks of his water.

"Sure." Hotch said, standing up and grabbing the stack Dave had slid towards him on the table.

"Thanks." Rossi said, leaning back in his chair.

"Hey, I got some too." Morgan said, sliding his pile over as well.

"I got it, I'll help you." Emily said, standing up and grabbing the files before walking out of the room followed by Hotch.

Emily nodded nicely to the secretary as they walked into the office and again, the secretary grabbed his ass. It wasn't until they were walking out and she did it again that Emily noticed.

"Hey, what was that?" She asked the secretary angrily.

"What was what?" The older woman asked innocently.

"Um, I'm pretty sure you just grabbed his ass." Emily said bluntly, attracting the attention of their teammates who were only a few feet away, causing them to leave the conference room to see what was going on.

"Maybe I did, maybe I didn't. Is that against the law?" The woman asked challengingly.

"Yes! It's called sexual harassment!" Emily practically yelled.

"Emily-" Hotch tried to say, before he was cut off.

"And what do you care? It's not like he's your husband, he's just your boss." The woman said with a smirk.

"Well I do care because he's my boyfriend!" Emily said without thinking.

"Oh really now? Well I didn't know the man was taken, he's not wearing a ring, so he may as well not be." The woman said staring directly at Emily.

"Well either way I'd prefer it if you didn't touch his ass every time he walks by."

"Well like I said, all I have is your word, and I'm choosing not to trust it." The woman said meanly as smiled devilishly at Emily again.

"Oh for crying out loud." Emily said under her breath as she turned to Hotch and planted a kiss right on his lips.

"Well then, get a room." The secretary said bitterly.

After they broke apart they walked into the conference room where the rest of the team had retreated back to their seats, and sat back down. They all stared dumbfoundedly at Hotch and Emily as both of them continued looking at phone records until Hotch finally broke the silence, "I didn't peg you for the jealous type."

"Seriously? Me? Not jealous of another woman grabbing your ass?" Emily laughed sarcastically.

"I hate you both." JJ said, letting out a sigh.


	9. Late Night Conversations

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "Times where members of the team have walked in on hotchniss doing whatever." – Brewsterbabe

Emily leaned back in her desk chair and rubbed the heel of her palms against her tired eyes. She'd been doing paperwork since they got back from the case today at noon and all she wanted to do was go to sleep but she had one more paper to fill out, then all her paperwork for the week would be done and she wouldn't have to take any home this weekend. Everyone else had gone home hours ago, forgoing staying late to finish and deciding just to take a case file or two home for the weekend rather than try and stay awake any longer.

Emily leaned back over her desk and tried to focus her blurry eyes on the paper in front of her. She managed to fill in two lines of it before deciding she needed to get up and get some coffee. She'd rather be up a little later tonight then be up any earlier than nine am tomorrow morning.

Emily got up from her desk and made her way over to the kitchenette in the bullpen and passed right by the normal coffee pot filled with stale coffee from this morning and went directly to the single cup brewer next to the sink. She opened the drawer next to it where the single serve packets were kept and chose the lightest roast with the least caffeine she could find. She plopped it into the machine and hit the start button to brew the coffee. She moved over to the other side of the counter to grab a packet of Splenda and a stir stick before moving back in front the coffee brewer. She sat in silence for a moment waiting for the coffee to be done when a voice broke her out of her thoughts, startling her slightly.

"What are you still doing here?" Hotch asked her worriedly as he approached her in the kitchenette.

"Oh my god, you scared me for a second….I'm just trying to finish up my paperwork so I don't have any to do this weekend." Emily explained, ripping open the packet of Splenda and pouring into her now ready coffee.

"Emily, it's eleven o'clock why are drinking coffee?" Hotch asked her, concerned.

"I told you, I want to finish the paperwork." Emily said, hoping he wouldn't question her any further.

"Is everything all right?" Hotch asked, stepping closer to her until they were almost touching.

"Aaron I'm fine, just a little exhausted from the case is all." Emily said, trying to ease his worries.

"Are you sure? Because you usually don't get scared when someone comes up behind you." Hotch said.

"Ugh, fine." Emily relented, taking and step forward and falling into his chest, making him immediately wrap his arms around her smaller frame.

"Emily talk to me." Hotch said holding her in the embrace.

"The case just got to me, I don't know why, but I had a nightmare last night and I've felt off over since." Emily admitted.

"Why didn't you come to my room after the nightmare?" Hotch asked.

"It was two am and I didn't want to wake you." Emily told him.

"I thought we made a deal, if you have a nightmare you come get me." Hotch said, slightly upset.

"Next time…" Emily said with a sigh and she hugged him tighter.

"Why don't you come sleep at my place this weekend. It'll make you feel better and Jack's been begging to spend time with you." Hotch proposed.

"I'm fine…" Emily said.

"Emily." Hotch said sternly.

"Fine…" Emily said, leaning back and putting her hands on his biceps as his arms were still wrapped around her back.

"What if you just stayed with me and Jack all the time? I'd be right there if you had a nightmare, Jack would be thrilled, I would be thrilled…" Hotch said quickly.

"Aaron Hotchner are you asking me to move in with you?" Emily said with a laugh as she tilted her head to the side and looked into his eyes.

"Yes, I mean, unless you don't want to." Hotch said, his eyes widening slightly, hoping he didn't take things too far too soon.

"I would love to move in with you." Emily said with smile as she leaned in and gave him a long, sensual kiss.

* * *

JJ let out a sigh as she walked down the hall. She had gotten stuck in a meeting on her way out the door because they just needed an extra body to vote on something, and since she was a ranking agent, she got pulled in. They had been voting on various, very tedious things such as changing and updating computer systems and whether or not they should switch brands of pens because sometimes the current ones leaked. JJ had never even known these meetings took place, but as she glanced around the room in the meeting she mostly just saw administrative agents who had never been in the field their entire career. So she decided this must be the highlight of their month, debating which brand of pen the Bureau should use.

It was now eleven pm and JJ was making her way back from the first floor up the BAU where she realized she forgot to grab some case files to work on for the weekend. She clicked the up button the elevator and waited as the doors slowly opened and she walked inside. She clicked the button for the BAU's floor and leaned her head against the wall of the elevator. She was just ready to fall asleep and she still had a twenty-minute drive home. The elevator dinged, signaling she had arrived at her floor and she waited for the doors to open. Once they did she slowly straightened up and walked out of the doors and pushed the glass doors the BAU opened and headed straight to her desk, not even bothering to look around since everyone should be gone by now. She opened the top drawer of her desk and grabbed the stack of case files and put them in her bag. She rubbed her eyes before zipping up her bag and turning around, stopping dead in her tracks.

Right in front of her in the kitchenette of the BAU was none other than Emily Prentiss and Aaron Hotchner kissing.

"Oh my god!" JJ said unknowingly. It wasn't until the two agents spun around with wide eyes looking at her did she realize that she had said it out loud.

"JJ?! What are you doing here?" Emily said, panicking slightly.

"I was, um.." JJ stuttered out, unable to finish her sentence.

"This isn't what it looks like." Hotch said, trying to cover it up.

"Well it looks to me like you two were making out in the kitchen." JJ said, regaining her voice.

"We can explain…" Emily said, starting to walk over to JJ followed by Hotch.

"You better." JJ said, crossing her arms in front of her chest. "How long?" She asked.

"Since I got back from London. We were talking about it while I was in London but once the transfer opportunity came up we decided to do it." Emily explained.

"YOU GOT BACK NINE MONTHS AGO!" JJ yelled.

"JJ calm down, we just didn't want everyone to know. It's still kind of new and with everything that's happened before we just didn't want to take any chances." Emily said, hoping that would soften the blow a little.

"So you decided you couldn't tell your closest friends that you were finally dating?" JJ said, calming down slightly.

"JJ…" Emily said, trailing off. "Wait, what do you mean finally?" Emily said quickly.

"We always thought you guys would've hooked up a long time ago." JJ said with a small smile.

"Oh my god." Emily said, covering her face with her hands.

"Okay, well it's late, and I'm exhausted. But we are not done talking about this. You and me Emily, tomorrow night, girls night with wine. Garcia is coming too. And you are giving me all of the details." JJ said as she walked towards the doors.

"Fine…" Emily said.

JJ smiled again and pushed the door open before stopping for a moment and saying, "And guys?"

"Yeah?" Emily asked.

"I'm happy for you."


End file.
